Failure of 2015. And hope of 2016

Last year (2015), on two occasions at different point during the year, I had made a plan to write at approximately 500 words every day on this blog. But I managed to fail at this target by huge margin. You can see there are only 2 entries.

Hence, this time. I am making an entry in writing, that I will write some opinion at least once a week on anything. And there is no word limit bondage this time.

Phew!! Hopefully this time I will reach the target. And with this hope Begins 2016.  :D

.... taking it forward ...

Recently through a FaceBook post I came across this interesting piece by Aftab Ahmed. 

To give you a small summary, he has correctly interpreted the concept of 'halal' and 'haram' income and its usage and then he has put up his view on the Babri-Masjid why it doesn't matter, and yet it matters. 

Although he is partially correct that, "Any big or small event where even it seemed remotely that they are being man-handled they (Muslims) erupt." But the truth is its slightly more complicated. 

There is a vision of India. It is of a democratic and multi-cultural country with no single religion being the state's religion -- Nehru's version of India. And that religion should be practiced in the house in a religious place etc. In short religion and state are different. These are people who call themselves 'secular'  and they believe in being diverse. 

Now there is another vision for India. This calls for a single country with homogeneity, as thought by RSS. It has some contradictions but we will not get into it as of now. In this thought process, religion has a very important role, which to an extent is the seed of the conflict.  Watch this video for more clarity on the type of ideology they propagate.

And if anyone is actually interested then they must read the speeches, books, etc. written by M. S. Golwalkar, the second "Sarsanghchalak" (Supreme chief) of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. (wiki link).

If that seems like a lot of work then you can read: "TERRIFYING VISION — M.S. Golwalkar, the RSS and India" by Jyotirmaya Sharma. The work is quite scholarly, sometimes dry but worthy of reading for anyone who wants to understand why the Babri-Masjid is more of a Nehru's vs Gowalkar's vision of India. All normal people irrespective of being a Hindu, Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, Tribal, religions will only be pawns in this ideological game.

p.s. I think Gandhiji and Swami Viekanand too would have sided with Nehru. But then I have not read much of their work and would love to see some light being shown on them.

The best one liners of Dilbert

A friend of mine had recently shared this with me.

Some of Dilbert's best one liners:

1. I say no to alcohol, it just doesn't listen.

2. Marriage is one of the chief causes of divorce.

3. Work is fine if it doesn't take too much of your time.

4. When everything comes in your way you're in the wrong lane.

5. The light at the end of the tunnel may be an incoming train..

6. Born free, taxed to death.

7. Everyone has a photographic memory, some just don't have film.

8. Life is unsure; always eat your dessert first.

9. Smile, it makes people wonder what you are thinking.

10. If you keep your feet firmly on the ground, you'll have trouble putting on your pants.

11. It's not hard to meet expenses, they are everywhere.

12. The guy who invented the first wheel was an idiot. The guy who invented the other three, he was the genius.

13. The trouble with being punctual is that no one is there to appreciate it.

14. In a country of free speech, why are there phone bills?

15. If you cannot change your mind, are you sure you have one?

16. Beat the 5 O'clock rush, leave work at noon!

17. If you can't convince them, confuse them.

18. It's not the fall that kills you. It's the sudden stop at the end.

19. I couldn't repair your brakes, so I made your horn louder.

20. Hot glass looks same as cold glass. - Cunino's Law of Burnt Fingers.

21. The cigarette does the smoking you are just the sucker.

22. Whenever I find the key to success, someone changes the lock.

23. To Err is human; to forgive is not a Company policy.

24. The road to success...... Is always under construction.

25. In order to get a Loan, you first need to prove that you don't need it ..

Missing the tidbit of life

Came across this interesting blog. In summary, the author is pointing out how the culture of 9-5 or eight hours of work has devoid him of enjoying his life..

I have been thinking about this myself for last few months. And somehow feel that working beyond 4-6 hours is actually not necessary.. The other 2-3 hours should be used to study, think through things, and read that is off your work.. After that better go and take a walk, listen to other people.. And may be, if possible then it would be better to go and travel a bit twice a year, go to a place you haven't been to before..

In fact I have come to realise that if you truly want to know a lane or a road, block etc then walk through it.. When you are riding or driving you tend to miss on too many things, fail to observe or understand the significance...

Living life is not just about making money, partying but its also about understanding, admiring and enjoying the small things in life -- walking, listening to other people, and spending time with family and friends, enjoying a cup of coffee/tea..

Abstracts - Antifragile, business, religion, introverts

We are living in such an information heavy world that it takes time and real effort to just chaff through many many bytes and words of garbage information to find something interesting. Off late, I have been thinking of sharing the most interesting pieces of articles on a daily/weekly basis where the topics can be as diverse as possible. Alas, haven't been able to do so until today.

Now I plan to share anything that I find interesting here and I would pollute it with my views while providing for the link so that you can enjoy the actual material.


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A Talk Show : This is an all audio show between Nassim N. Taleb and Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman on Taleb's book "Anti-Fragile". It is very interesting and must be heard to understand the overall idea if Taleb. If you don't like reading through his book might at least listen to this.

He has some very interesting perspective as well!!!

"Education inhibits risk taking, this is what I don't like academia" -- Nassim Taleb

Listen carefully all the way to the last question because in the end you might just end up understanding anti-fragile better than Nassim Talem as Daniel Kahneman did when he answered for the last question.

Unpredictability is a great thing in life :)

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Memento Mori

This means "remember your mortality."

As legend has it, the phrase dates back to a conquering Roman general. As the general enjoyed Rome's equivalent of a ticker-tape parade, a slave was tasked with standing behind him, whispering "memento mori" into his ear.

The goal was to keep the general from getting too big a head... and possibly losing it in his next battle (because of lack of humility and lack of respect for risk). 


Something we are taught during school but somehow when we are grown up we tend to forget. No point in writing anything on my own, so just copy-pasted the part that I thought was most important.

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An great interview of Asghar Ali Engineer. 

There are few people I would agree with as much as I do with with Mr Engineer on Islam and freedom. Most people may not get the time to read his articles and go through his views. But at a broader level even watching this video is a good option.

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Introverted Kids Need to Learn to Speak Up at School

An interesting read on why parents should encourage their children to communicate. There are some clues on how but no step by step procedure.

If they seem useless to you, then next time onwards don't look at anything with the heading as "Abstracts"

Speak Up or Shut Up!!!

Came across this very interesting article that Reliance Industries has sent a legal notice to TV channels for covering a press conference-- http://www.newslaundry.com/2013/01/itna-sannata-kyun-hai-bhai/  --, now all of the channels are cowing down.

Ideally one would expect them to shout that they have been sent a legal notice and this is against freedom of speech. If anyone has to be sent a legal notice then it should be the people who had called for the press conference. Where is "India demands to know" - Arnab Goswami. This is a national interest story, and perfect for TRP if played properly!

TV channels are only a medium of information, they should not be held accountable for the information as long as "it is not their people (reporters and anchors) who are talking and their is no smart editing".

A reporter or an anchor can misinterpret an information in which case there is a possibility of a defamation. Also using the tools of editing, views can be twisted leading to misinformation, again raising a possibility of defamation. But when the medium is showing the view of an individual or an organisation then that medium cannot be held to accountability.

Its funny and extremely dangerous trend,  it is this kind of media that people tend to take serious and as a gospel of truth!!

Therefore, maybe it would be the best in the interest of the larger people if we put government regulation in all over the media space.

The plus point of having a full fledged govt controlled media section is that most people would know 'The Usual Suspects' if the media is not honest in its job. Behind the garb of freedom of expression and this entire self regulation talk, if the media is not forthcoming with information and frank in its expression then we have a failing fourth estate.

Either now is one of those moments when TV channels should speak up once again on freedom of expression and self-regulation or shut up and let the government regulate it.

Would love to hear some counter views. 

Observations on SEO

Based on this google’s blog and the questions under the sub-head "What counts as a high-quality site?"

It seems the focus for websites should not be on seo (search engine optimization), that has cropped up as an industry in India, but its more to do with creation of high quality and authoritative work. The seo concepts and ideas should only be used to create an easy index so that the 'crawler' can easily identify the page. 

Just as we use an index to search in a book, the tags, description etc will help the crawlers to identify and index properly. To put in in simple words -- the website should have high direct traffic, which sort of reflects its brand value. And the website should be easy to navigate and index by Google’s crawler.  

Thus people who are not aware of a topic/subject and hence when they search on google, the evaluation for the result will give the highest point to the subject expert (meta Description and the company background), followed by direct traffic density (brand value) and definitely this will be supported by easy navigation for its crawlers (page description and tagging).  

My experience working in the business segment of the media industry, my knowledge as of now says that I should follow the following websites for business related news:  

reuters.com -- Business and breaking news  
blooomberg.com -- Business and breaking news  
moneycontrol.com -- Business and breaking news  
livemint.com -- Business news and good analytical views on breaking news  
vccircle.com -- India related private equity news and all merger and acquisitions in India valueresearchonline.com -- Mutual funds news and numbers  

Then other website of interest would be  
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com 
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com 
http://www.business-standard.com 
http://www.indiainfoline.com  

All of these cover Indian businesses in the media industry. Now that you also have an idea of where to look for what. just follow the simple exercise.  

So in the google’s search box if we type a mutual fund’s name, not a fund house name like Franklin Templeton, but the name of the exact fund like ‘Franklin India Bluechip’. 


Then the top results should represent -  

• Franklin Templeton (the fund house) 
• Value Research (the expert) 
• Money Control (the expert) 
• Economic Times (the expert)  

Similarly if we search with a company’s name like ‘RIL’ the result will start from the company’s website followed by other sources but most of these results don't come as a surprise to me. If the search ambit is increased to ‘RIL Valutaions’ it will make a difference in the result but even they are not all that surprising.  

This leads to a conclusion that site ratings matter on things like direct traffic, claim of expertise which has been recognized over a period of time etc This is not surprising considering the article on google in The Atlantic Magazine.

p.s. Not so sure but I think the search result also takes into account if we are logged in or not on gmail/orkut or any other google affiliates or how many people receive mails from a website, which sheds light on their popularity. I need to do some testing and reading on these part.

'Jago re'

Once in a while its good to be on a very long vacation, there is lots of time on our hands to look at what has been happening around the world and reflect on it.

It was interesting to read about how the so called strong economies of the slowdown year (2008) are getting a bit shaky -- Canada, China, India and Germany. That’s something to worry about especially if you are living in one of them. Maybe it might us a chance to make some money, the mid 2009 way. Turmoil in Middle East and North Africa, whooha, it would be good fun to read some of the articles by conspirator theorist. It may give some nice ideas on writing short stories, probably even a novel. 

Falling skeletons from the 'cabinet' of the Indian government. It seems the so called smart businessmen are not so smart. Their smartness is more a result of willful negligence on the part of our so called leaders of natural assets like spectrum, oil fields, mines etc.

Ambani's were famous of pocketing the government for their benefit, the Radiia tapes have put a blot on Ratan Tata as well. But who cares, most people will not fail to praise the advertisement which are part of the 'Jago re' campaign and fall flat on their face when the time of action comes. Ironically the advertisement is supported by a Tata group company. Wonder if they will shut it down.

This reminds me of an incident. One day, I went with a friend to a nearby mom and pop store. There was one customer shouting over the shopkeeper. Apparently the shopkeeper was trying to sell an expired product. It was his bad luck; the customer caught the plot and threatened that if he tries to pull the trick again, the shopkeeper will have to deal with the consumer complaint department.

This threat was the result of an advertisement campaign by the state government. The ad was on the lines that consumers’ should not allow themselves to be cheated and if they notice something like this then they can get help from the consumer complaint forum. The ad used to end with a quip "Jago grahank jago". (Wake-up customers wake-up)

Coming back to the scene of the incident. After the customer left, the storekeeper turned to his friend, who was also present there -- "Grahank aisa jaga hai ki sone ka naam hi nahin leta". (The customer has woken up in a way that they are not even thinking of falling asleep.)

It would be nice if the people of the Republic (of India) someday also ‘wake-up’ the way it has been put up in the advertisement campaign. Perhaps then we will get the chance to fulfill our tryst with destiny.

Bleak Possibility?

In the next couple of months there will be issues that will grab attention or will be missed. But under either of the circumstances it will have consequences that will go down in history as important events.

Within the South Asia region, one civil war has ended (Sri-Lanka) another one has started Pakistan operation in the border areas by the army and the counter attack they are facing. (attack on the military camp etc.)

The upcoming "operation green hunt" in India, if the army is called from its barrack then it will be a dangerous thing. Having the para-military is more than enough, bringing full army against its own civilian is a bad choice to make.

Afghanistan will be a boiling cauldron and this is will be a mess that everyone will remember. A half-baked strategy which involves only the military never works. And that needs to be worked through to accomplish the right results. (Unless the right result is just to make money even if it results in mounting body bags)

Water and food crisis are now present in the headlines although its kind of late reaction. The media reports leave the impression it will have effect on all countries and the world will be divided again in a different way.

This will transcend to a new breed of war that will be seen in near future. This will be the new age of war which will be fought through the Sovereign Wealth Funds and Cyber Warfare. New wave of cold-war would be better term to say. Don't know how many countries are looking at this seriously but it will have great consequences.

"The Blog"

If we look up at the one and all knowing - website - Wikipedia then this would be the definition –“A blog (a contraction of the term weblog) is a type of website, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video.” Besides this you will find all the relevant information along with the history, popularity etc., etc.

Leaving out what all they may or may not contain, following are the common observable features of a blog/of blogs

Blog or weblog (if you wish to call it) is more like a personal diary published in news paper and/or kept at a public library which can be viewed and commented by others. But not all of them are good or interesting. Actually most of them can be termed as boring.

As one of my friend puts it, blogs are more like the editorial page of ‘Times of India’.

One thing that is very common in blog (either in a blog or in blogs) is excessive usage of the first person pronoun - “I” – so much so that some people refer to it as, “blogs are a tool for narcissism” It’s too harsh a terminology therefore it’s preferably better to term it as not-so-interesting autobiographies. There are also some that are actually well written, like waiterrant.blogspot.com (latest posts will be available at waiterrant.net)

Then there are blogs that are business and news oriented. These are the blogs that consider themselves as journalistic blogs. It is really a nice place place to start a rumour. And perhaps in terms of funny news they can beat India TV hands down.

There is also interesting section of blogs too; these are blogs on prominent people or groups or on a personality/theme which are quite nice. Remember the most talked about fakeiplplayer.blogspot.com, well it’s our desi (Indian) version of fakestevejobs.blogspot.com but if you follow cricket and IPL you will love the former.

Well it doesn’t end here there are blogs which are more similar to what “I” just did here. Make a commentary on a blog or website and then provide the link. Don’t know if the intention is promotional or sharing generalised opinion!!

Movie review too is a favourite topic among bloggers. Every one is a movie expert. Despite attending a Communication college and making a short fiction film for a project, most people in my batch wouldn’t want to sound like an expert. Whether it is because they are humble or it is because they are honest could be a question in itself, but most bloggers assume themselves to be an expert regardless of their background.

Going ahead, now that recession has become a part of many people’s life, a new category of bloggers have cropped up, these are the ones who write about either a specialized topic or a general topic day-to-day. Then they get Google’s ad sense and earn which is a nice thing. (So if any one goes jobless then, one can try luck with this trick too)

There are those who go a step ahead than Google ad sense. They turn their blogs to books. One such example would be waiterrant.blogspot.com. Well the guy turned his blog into a book or someone else did it for him. There are few others also and a story on this came in ‘The Guardian’.

Maybe blogging is a good thing after all. There was a time when most people wanted to try their hands in movies and they would go to film cities of their respective countries. Guess this is the place where most can try their keyboards (since ‘pen’ wouldn’t work) at typing (same problem with ‘writing’ too) also.

Curious Olympics?

Recently I received a mail from a friend of mine, given below is the text of that mail.

What do you say? why should a country bid to host games such as commonwealth, Olympics and so on...

I think there are two factors: pride, and economic growth. I think that growth comes first, and pride follows...

It helps create employment, infrastructure development. The expenditure that the govt incur to prepare for the games gets reimbursed through increase in tourism during those games, and thereafter the image that the country creates for itself attracts further investments and tourism.

So pride / image is just a means to faster growth, and the latter remains the primary objective.

On the other hand, there is a considerable risk: if the govt is not able to provide with sufficient facilities to the guests during those games, then its image takes a beating, and problems follow...

Well before proceeding to the answer, a simple understanding is must; life is not mathematical i.e. 2+2=4, this doesn't happen in life of an individual, entity, nation etc. It's complex!

So assuming that its about economic or pride first and then the there is a follow up of the element would be wrong. Let me put it this way, there are few essential things that happens.

- Government improves infrastructure for a simple reason to give employment and show there is work being allotted. This keeps 'social unrest' away.

- Some business man gets involved to earn money.

- Power brokers and some leaders or people near to the decision makers take their cut and support it also making sure they don't have to bear any downside.

- Now to make sure that the nation can be united there are different policy that statesmen adhere to for example feel superior and hate others is also one of them (have already mentioned this one in my previous blog)

Now it is not that any one factor be termed as major and the other as minor, nor can their be any priority. They all work in tandem. And some where in this whole circus it depends who is more powerful, the traders or the power mongers, who can go to any length to keep power to themselves.

O freedom, My freedom!

On January 26, 1950, India as a nation was not reborn rather it was christened. The rules (the constitution) to run a nation were put to practice from that day. Till then we were ruled by British Law under the British Monarch but on that day it ceased to be so and India became a Republic. 60 years it has been today since then and the rule of law is facing an asthma attack.

“WE, THE PEOPLE OF INDIA, having solemnly
resolved to constitute India into a [SOVEREIGN
SOCIALIST SECULAR DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC] and
to secure to all its citizens:
JUSTICE, social, economic and political;
LIBERTY of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship;
EQUALITY of status and of opportunity;
and to promote among them all
FRATERNITY assuring the dignity of the individual
and the [unity and integrity of the Nation];
IN OUR CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY this twentysixth
day of November, 1949, do HEREBY ADOPT,
ENACT AND GIVE TO OURSELVES THIS
CONSTITUTION.”

This is the preamble of our constitution. Its importance can be compared to that of 'United States Declaration of Independence.’ The declaration lays the foundation for freedom, the reason. The preamble tells us – How we will live in this country.

According to the supreme court it should be only used to interpret the constitution in an ambiguous situation. Well read it. Read it many times over, over again, and the one thing that we will have to confront is we are not what the preamble envisaged. It has the spirit of why we needed freedom; freedom from the Raj (British Raj). Looking at it today there is still a lot for us to imbibe from it.

The first line says – we the people of India, having solemnly resolved to constitute India into a socialist, secular, democratic, republic.

That’s a big line, have we resolved to it? We are secular, democratic, republic and socialist to some extent. But more in words, cause actions fail to support this. Yes we are secular; we crucify everyone in the name of religion. Yes we are socialist; we will privatize all companies, profit or loss making alike. Yes we are democratic, every time we have elections we choose a powerful thug; this may not be entirely true since there is a lot of hope with Omar Abdullah. Let time be the judge on him for he is still young. That’s quite an achievement for us.


The next one has many components where we the citizens shall enjoy justice, liberty and equality. Alas! We are a dismal lot here too.

On December 23, 2008, Lok Sabha passed eight bills in 17 minutes! Now these are rare species of human and they should be kept in a museum or should they be sent to the zoo cause how many humans can present, debate and arrive at a consensus on eight bills in 17 minutes? Among this bill includes a radically altered Criminal Procedural Code (CrPC). According to this bill cops cannot arrest a criminal if charges would result in seven years or less of imprisonment on proving guilty

Therefore now one can do anything short of killing which is termed as – attempt to commit culpable homicide - So harm in trying or scaring some one to death. Then, I am sure that thieves will upgrade themselves to robbers, as robbery too comes under the same gambit. Or you can act like Raju or Madoff i.e. cheating; women can be sure to not feel so good because 'outraging a woman’s modesty' is no more a serious issue according to the government (I really want to know what women MPs and the President have to say on this); this should help the son's of those MPs who are involved in cases of rape etc. Oh and a new tool of killing anyone perceived to be threat by politicians will be 'death caused by negligence' a.k.a try killing some one then just prove that it was negligence. After doing all or one of them, the police department famous for being inefficient will only serve a notice.

Now comes the fuuny part - the notice of appearance casts a duty on the accused person to appear before the police and “cooperate” with the investigation. (Freedom at last!) It is only if he fails to comply with the terms of the notice that the question of arresting him will arise. And what will the police do when the criminal runs away? Try chasing him/her, how in humane that is, making a pot belly officer run after a criminal? That is insanity? Where is the Human Rights commission?

Now back to the benifits of the criminal - I guess the easy thing to do would be to commit a crime and if you are served a notice then get ready to run. Just leave the country and go some place, cause if proven guilty you will go to jail. And if you can hire some smart lawyer and give a little money to the prosecution also make sure to do something that would make the witness go hostile. Well if you can do all of these then dont go to bahamas or some other place like Dubai or Pakistan. WE (the government- please dont get confused with the people) will protect you!

Oh and the best part is that if the police arrest accused person then they (police) will have to tell the court ‘why it did so and furnish evidence in support of it.’

On the other hand new laws are being incorporated for terror – latest in the list being strengthening of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, (UAPA), 1967. When will we learn? Previously also we had these anti-terror laws but it has never managed to protect us. The truth is, they have been abused by those in power time and again.

Now see the funny part these laws (TADA, POTA and UAPA) do not identify any new offenses under the law. Because ‘terrorism’ is complex and no country could define terrorism in precise legal terms. One man’s terrorist turns out to be another’s hero. What is done is that, definition is made murky and vague. Now look at this, violence itself is also a given importance under other offenses like murder, arson, loot, rioting, causing injury, etc. under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) or under laws like the Arms Act or the Explosives Act. The very offenses specified under these draconian laws.

However, if a person is charged under the provisions of UAPA instead of the IPC, the police would obtain legitimacy for torturing the accused. Thus, it will be the cop choice to charge under UAPA. The accused would then be denied bail, the only good thing is they wont accept forced confessional statements. So, overnight, they become "terrorists" in the eyes of the law while the other accused remain without any such term tag. Therefore if a politician or a well connected person is charged it wil definitely be IPC and a normal person will be left to the mercy of the Cop.

With such double standards being implemented how can we say that WE WILL PROVIDE JUSTICE TO OUR citizen – social, economic and political?

LET THE SHOW GO ON

Course books have been meddled by past two governments. And now the states and centre are having different things in their books. The precedent has been set; history will not reflect the past but those in the seat of power will decide what the past was.

“Media is the fourth pillar of democracy” – This statement was there in the school text book (don’t know if it is still there or not.) And Jawaharlal Nehru understanding the importance of this fourth pillar sanctioned in Delhi the prime spot building around Income Tax Office (ITO), so that media is near the seat of power and can put a check on those in the driving seat of the country.

There are instances like emergency when the press did what it’s supposed to do or at least tried to do so. So did it manage to get justice in Jessica Lal murder case but what about now? It is quite when the rules are being set to end justice. Why did it behave irresponsibly when there was carnage in Mumbai? Why is it that India doesn’t allow Aljazeera being the biggest democracy? What is there to fear?

We allow hatred in the name of freedom etc. ‑ Gujrat 2002 (target of hate - Muslims), Orissa & Karnataka 2008 (target of hate – Christians), Jammu & Kashmir 2008 (target - minority in the respective area). This is a small list post millennium, detailed and well researched would be longer. The noted ones in pre-millennium have been – Sikh riots (1984), post Babri Masjid riots (1992) and many more; this we have allowed so far. But a channel with the idea of representing the other side will not be allowed?

Where is the citizens ‘LIBERTY of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship’? Why is one allowed to preach hate in any form but the other cannot even practice the liberty? Why the double standard?

Without Justice and Liberty how can one even think of Equality?

For the record how are we equal? When those who rule us can get away after scams and get re-elected? When the CJI says that judges need not declare assets, then where do Justice and Equality Stands?


But this should not mean the end of the world

One thing maybe we have managed to preserve is the idea of ‘Fraternity’; if not in the complete then partial. The belief that we are a great nation persists, when things go awry from riots to Mumbai 26/11 we get to see the believers stand up. There are those who stand for the fraternity like Hemant Karkare and many others whose names have not been highlighted but contribution no less in significance.

On the road the feeling of nationalism is high in every one, in there own ways. If not for the county, then for a holiday, the spirit is at a high. And ‘Yes’ we are secured on that one day because the, our dear politicians are safe with their A, B, C to X, Y, Z security cadre around them.

Let us try to keep the spirit because that will only give us the hope. The hope – Change will happen, and there shall be a better Day. That winter can be long but will end some day. For it is our work to keep the lights on and stand for the fraternity in the hope, “one day democracy will bring justice and liberty.” That will be the day when the constitution will follow the preamble in spirit and word!

Jai Hind!

Once again a 'Happy New Year'

Once Again!

'Happy New Year!' every year on 1st Jan people get to hear this. To put it to better words Every year when Clock Strikes 12 a.m., people celebrate the start of a new cycle. My question is "why?"

Most of you reading this will say that, I have lost my mind or too philosophical. Well to tell the truth its neither. Just a weird Q and certain obeservations of how people react.

During school days it meant holiday, something to look forward. It would be called winter vacations. thats sleep till late days. A nice break from the monotonous routine of school. And if one observes christmas then its festival time with lots of gifts.

Then come college or graduation. New friends some, new atmosphere. many choose to start drinking from hence and more than looking forward to vacations, i always found my friends making elaborate, time bound drinking plans (although no one cared about time)

And there starts the cycle! call up a friend and chances are the reply would be

Happy New Year, (hic!)

The next set of reaction is happiness, Dont ask me for reasons. Followed by new resolutions (excitement of "new" year). and as it gets old the sense of happiness is lost till the next "new" year.
And new year resolution are put aside as old year's resolution. And all excitement is shifted towards birthday, father's day, mother's day, this day and that day etc and so many other day about which i have no clue.

Then there are a rational response, they wish, crack some humor and live it normal.

No one seems to know about any story of when and how people started this 'happy new year'. Perhaps its because there are none.

But why bother, take a day off or work as you like and Hope for a good calender cycle ahead!!!